Local Tobacco Company Invests Heavily in Infrastructure Construction

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 12/13/2010

Xianyang City Tobacco Company in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has invested a total of 109.5432 million yuan (16.1 million U.S. dollars) in the construction of infrastructure facilities for tobacco fields to improve conditions for tobacco production in the city over the past five years, with the amount of investment in the construction of irrigation projects alone reaching 60.9745 million yuan (8.97 million U.S. dollars). Besides, the city tobacco company has invested 32.0239 million yuan (4.7 million U.S. dollars) in the construction of extensive curing barns, covering 27,990 mu (1,866 hectares) of basic tobacco fields; 11.4077 million yuan (1.68 million U.S. dollars) in building 61 machine-ploughing paths measuring 116.32 kilometers in length in tobacco fields, covering 38,011 mu (2,534 hectares) of basic tobacco fields; 1.5175 million yuan (223,000 U.S. dollars) in purchasing 390 sets of farm machinery for tobacco production, covering 4,421 mu (295 hectares) of basic tobacco fields; and 4.332 million yuan (637,000 U.S. dollars) in building 228 greenhouses for developing tobacco seedlings, covering 34,200 mu (2,280 hectares) of basic tobacco fields. The projects of infrastructure facilities already built are scattered in 236 villages in 25 townships of five counties across the city. The construction of these infrastructure facilities has contributed to solving outstanding problems of water shortage for tobacco production, difficulty in draining floodwater during rainy seasons, backwardness of curing facilities, inconvenience in ploughing and walking, backwardness of tobacco seedlings development facilities, low rate of generalization of farm machinery for tobacco production, etc. Besides, it is also capable of benefiting more than 50,000 mu (more than 3,333 hectares) of other crops in the city. It was reported that in 2010, Xianyang City Tobacco Company transplanted tobacco seedlings onto 38,000 mu (2,533 hectares) of tobacco fields, purchased 111,700 dan (5,585 tons) of leaf tobacco, and paid 13.4 million yuan (1.97 million U.S. dollars) in taxes to the local finance. In the same year, the tobacco growers in Xianyang earned a total of 66.99 million yuan (9.85 million U.S. dollars) in income from tobacco growing. Enditem